Tag: Port

Up until now, if users wanted to use Android on their Windows based PC, they had to use VirtualBox or any other VM manager.

While the average joe is not interested in running Android on his PC, it definitely comes in handy for developers as it allows them to test their app on the PC instead of switching to their phone or tablet every time.

Now, to make the life of developers easier, some gracious Chinese developers have managed to port Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich to Windows 7/Windows 8. This is a native port of Windows, and does not require any kind of VM environment.

While there is no Play Store yet, the developers are working hard on porting it along with the other Google goodies. Sideloading of APKs is possible, which will make it easier for developers to test their app. The performance is also impressively smooth with hardly any stability issues. Since the port is kernel dependent, it will not work on Windows XP or other versions of Windows.

A video of Android 4.0.3 running on a Windows based PC can be found here. An early release of the port can be downloaded from here.

WebOS never really met with the success it deserved. While Palm’s handsets consistently failed to provide a decent webOS experience, HP killed the mobile OS soon after it acquired Palm. The company did, however, open-source the OS as “Open webOS” for the developer community to tinker with it.

Due to this, “Open WebOS” has been ported to some devices including the Galaxy Nexus albeit in barely working condition. Today, joining that list is the $199 tablet from Google and Asus — the Nexus 7.

Below is a video of the Open WebOS in action on the Nexus 7 -:

It took the developer – Simon – around a week to port Open WebOS to the Nexus 7. Most of the work has been borrowed heavily from the Galaxy Nexus port, which made his job slightly easier. The port is by no means complete with the web browser and Wi-Fi being the only features that barely work. There is also a slight UI lag here and there, but this is a given considering the port is still in alpha stages.

Head over to the source link for more information and the download link.

Canonical has been working on brining Ubuntu to Android devices and other form factors for quite sometime now. On Friday, Canonical’s Commercial Engineering Director, Victor Palau, uploaded a video on YouTube of Ubuntu running on the Google’s $199 tablet, the Nexus 7.

The Google-branded-ASUS-manufactured Nexus 7 packs in 1GB of RAM, a quad-core Tegra 3 SoC from Nvidia, Wi-Fi and a 7-inch screen despite its low price point.

The video above is pretty short (21 seconds) but shows the Nexus 7 running Ubuntu with Unity desktop interface without any issues.

Canonical will be unveiling more information about Ubuntu for the Nexus 7 at its upcoming Ubuntu Developer Summit in Copenhagen to be held later this year.

Last week, we reported that Nokia has started rolling out the Nokia Belle FP1 update for three of its handsets, the Nokia 603, 700 and 701. The FP1 update will not be rolled out to the first generation of Symbian^3 handsets, including the N8 because of their slower processor and low RAM.

However, one of the developers over at DailyMobile forums has managed to port all the new goodies in Belle FP1 to the Nokia N8. This includes a new music player, the new web browser, the new widgets and the new task manager. The custom firmware also includes other goodies like improved image and video quality, more free RAM and overall faster performance.

N8 owners can get all these new Belle FP1 and other features on their phone by flashing the Nokia N8 Pro Edition v8 CFW from Taylor. Keep in mind that flashing this CFW file will void the warranty of your N8, so please proceed with caution. Head over to this thread on DailyMobile forums for the download link and further discussions.

Hopefully, these new UI goodies in Belle FP1 will also be ported to other first generation Symbian^3 handsets from Nokia.